Global drivers, sustainable manufacturing and systems ergonomics

Abstract

This paper briefly explores the expected impact of the 'Global Drivers' (such as population demographics, food security; energy security; community security and safety), and the role of sustainability engineering in mitigating the potential effects of these Global Drivers. The message of the paper is that sustainability requires a significant input from Ergonomics/ Human Factors, but the profession needs some expansion in its thinking in order to make this contribution.Creating a future sustainable world in which people experience an acceptable way of life will not happen without a large input from manufacturing industry into all the Global Drivers, both in delivering products that meet sustainability criteria (such as durability, reliability, minimised material requirement and low energy consumption), and in developing sustainable processes to deliver products for sustainability (such as minimum waste, minimum emissions and low energy consumption). Appropriate changes are already being implemented in manufacturing industry, including new business models, new jobs and new skills.Considerable high-level planning around the world is in progress and is bringing about these changes; for example, there is the US 'Advanced Manufacturing National Program' (AMNP)', the German 'Industrie 4.0' plan, the French plan 'la nouvelle France industrielle' and the UK Foresight publications on the 'Future of Manufacturing'.All of these activities recognise the central part that humans will continue to play in the new manufacturing paradigms; however, they do not discuss many of the issues that systems ergonomics professionals acknowledge. This paper discusses a number of these issues, highlighting the need for some new thinking and knowledge capture by systems ergonomics professionals. Among these are ethical issues, job content and skills issues.Towards the end, there is a summary of knowledge extensions considered necessary in order that Systems Ergonomists can be fully effective in this new environment, together with suggestions for the means to acquire and disseminate the knowledge extensions.

The impact of the fourth industrial revolution: a cross-country/region comparison

“…In total, these three industrial revolutions took roughly two centuries to develop. In the past few years, along with the increased research attention on the Internet of Things (IoT) (Atzori et al, 2010) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) (Khaitan & McCalley, 2015), industry, governments and society in general have noticed the trend towards the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" and acted to benefit from what it could provide (Siemieniuch et al, 2015). Moreover, according to a previous work (Liao et al, 2017), the number of conferences and academic papers related to "Industrie 4.0" (one significant research effort within the fourth industrial revolution era) have gradually increased, from 2013 to 2015, by 12.6 times and 24.2 times respectively.…”

The understanding and the implementation of Industry 4.0: An exploratory study of a Brazilian metal-mechanic SME

“…The Industry 4.0 technologies are based on nine pillars that drive the metal-mechanic industry deployment and support (Siemieniuch et al, 2015). The objective is to understand each one of them, in order to support the empirical research.…”

The identification of knowledge gaps in the technologies of cyber‐physical systems with recommendations for closing these gaps

“… Control of CPS is of fundamental importance both for industries and for the communities and individuals who interact with these systems. It is therefore a little surprising that there appears to be only one project, HoLiDes, in the ARTEMIS program that is exploring this Gap, particularly when one considers that (a) the physical configuration of the CPS may be determined only at run‐time and may change at any point thereafter ; (b) autonomous decision‐making components may be included in the CPS but humans will still be responsible for the decisions, and (c) the nature of interoperation between the CPS and its components with human coworkers will undergo significant change over time . It becomes considerably more problematic when autonomous components have the ability to learn and change their behavior …”

“…The evident interactions between these concerns indicate that we are in the realm of the “wicked problem,” meaning that single‐issue solutions are likely to have neither sufficient nor lasting effect and, in turn, point to the need for a comprehensive systems engineering approach. Since most societies on our planet have a huge and growing dependence upon an infrastructure of connected devices about our persons, homes, and communities and probably could not survive without their continued function, there is a new and massive opportunity for engineering a better future.…”